"I came into this game for the action, the excitement. Go anywhere. Travel light. Get in. Get out, smear on some cream cheese. Where ever there's trouble, a bagel alone."

I can see where your bagel shop could be forced to start selling un-manipulated bagels with toasters at hand, and cream cheese on the side. Or provide a 27b/6 with the whole wheat, a 27b/7 with the pumpernickle.

Some shops already have improved bagel slicer technology. It's the stick they jam into the slicer when the bagel gets stuck in the chute.

Older stores haven't upgraded, and the employees still reach in with their arms.

Maybe the tax is necessary for their disability.

Seriously, when I used to work downtown and hit one of those shops, I cringed and turned my head every time that thing cranked up with the sound of a dull table saw because I knew there was a 1d4 chance the employee would reach in there.

When I lived in CA many years ago, a cold sub sandwich at the local grab-n-go was cheaper than a warm one nuked by the clerk 'cuz the warm one had been "prepared". I seem to recall there were microwaves available for customer use also for heating cold food w/o the prep tax.

Trouble with prepared/unprepared and all other exemptions is that some pencil-neck gets to define and differentiate...no chance of absurdity (or corruption) there.

To the extent that taxes always have and always will continue, the answer is the same as it has been since Reagan...flat tax, no exemptions, no exceptions.

With nearly 40 years in retail, I hate being the indentured tax collector for the state. But the infrastructure is in place more or less nationwide, and point of sale collection is the surest method to ensure that all pay some so that some won't pay all.

Ten percent to the state and ten percent to the fed on every dollar spent, period, to replace any and all tax filings...Want to dodge tax? Live simply, save and invest. Want to live large? Great, be ready to pay large.

But Ronnie couldn't make it happen then, I don't see anyone or anything that could make it happen now, and I harbor no hope at all that it will happen ever.

Wonder how much tax money is being wasted to collect taxes? "Yes Governor, our Department Budget is $57,000,000 a year, but we've collected $3,142 on Sliced Bagel Revenue Taxes this year, but with the New $89,000,000 Technology Upgrade, we should be able to bring in all the rest of the missing revenue within 5 years". Too bad the total revenue it can collect would be about $78,000 a year.

The EPA has informed my mother that she must install a whole new septic system, with an attached monitor that uses the phone line to alert the authoritah when it 'needs service'.And I read over at Breda's that Cleveland is attaching monitoring chips to their recycle bins to catch those dastardly eco-criminals.People, when they will sift through your trash and crawl into your sewage to gain revenue and/ or grab power, I submit that it just might be time to oil up the guns and check the ammunition stock.Just sayin'.

What's even scarier about the Lipidlegger story is not just that, if we'd had the politicians then that we've got now, butter and other animal fats would have been banned and replaced by polyunsaturated fats - but that they'd do that on shaky science. The only fake butter that's any good is transfats, and that's now known to be far worse than the real thing.

Not to be a wiseacre or anything like that, but more states than not have such laws on the books.

If you go to the local donut shop and get two donuts and a cup of coffee, and eat them at the counter, then to the law that's a meal, subject to sales tax, restaurant meal tax, etc. If you get two dozen donuts in a big box and take them home with you, you've just bought groceries, and in most states there's no sales tax on groceries.

A fine line, I suppose, and kind of a dumb thing for our elected public servants to be thinking about, what with there being a war on, in my opinion (but who asked me? I know, I know).